Glutamate, the major amino-acid transmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), mediates excitatory synaptic neurotransmission through the activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors receptor-channels (iGluRs, namely NMDA, AMPA and kainate) and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). iGluRs are responsible for fast excitatory transmission (Nakanishi S et al., (1998) Brain Res Brain Res Rev., 26:230-235) while mGluRs have a more modulatory role that contributes to the fine-tuning of synaptic efficacy. Glutamate performs numerous physiological functions such as long-term potentiation (LTP), a process believed to underlie learning and memory but also cardiovascular regulation, sensory perception, and the development of synaptic plasticity. In addition, glutamate plays an important role in the patho-physiology of different neurological and psychiatric diseases, especially when an imbalance in glutamatergic neurotransmission occurs.
The mGluRs are seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors. The eight members of the family are classified into three groups (Groups I, II & III) according to their sequence homology and pharmacological properties (Schoepp D D et al. (1999) Neuropharmacology, 38:1431-1476). Activation of mGluRs lead to a large variety of intracellular responses and activation of different transductional cascades. Among mGluR members, the mGluR5 subtype is of high interest for counterbalancing the deficit or excesses of neurotransmission in neuropsychatric diseases. mGluR5 belongs to Group I and its activation initiates cellular responses through G-protein mediated mechanisms. mGluR5 is coupled to phospholipase C and stimulates phosphoinositide hydrolysis and intracellular calcium mobilization.
mGluR5 proteins have been demonstrated to be localized in post-synaptic elements adjacent to the post-synaptic density (Lujan R et al. (1996) Eur J. Neurosci. 8:1488-500; Lujan R et al. (1997) J Chem. Neuroanat., 13:219-41) and are rarely detected in the pre-synaptic elements (Romano C et al. (1995) J Comp Neurol. 355:455-69). MGluR5 receptors can therefore modify the post-synaptic responses to neurotransmitter or regulate neurotransmitter release.
In the CNS, mGluR5 receptors are abundant mainly throughout cortex, hippocampus, caudate-putamen and nucleus accumbens. As these brain areas have been shown to be involved in emotion, motivational processes and in numerous aspects of cognitive function, mGluR5 modulators are predicted to be of therapeutic interest.
A variety of potential clinical indications have been suggested to be targets for the development of subtype selective mGluR modulators. These include epilepsy, neuropathic and inflammatory pain, numerous psychiatric disorders (eg anxiety and schizophrenia), movement disorders (eg Parkinson disease), neuroprotection (stroke and head injury), migraine and addiction/drug dependency (for reviews, see Brauner-Osborne H et al. (2000) J Med Chem. 43:2609-45; Bordi F and Ugolini A. (1999) Prog Neurobiol. 59:55-79; Spooren W et al. (2003) Behav Pharmacol: 14:257-77).
The hypothesis of hypofunction of the glutamatergic system as reflected by NMDA receptor hypofunction as a putative cause of schizophrenia has received increasing support over the past few years (Goff D C and Coyle J T (2001) Am J Psychiatry, 158:1367-1377; Carlsson A et al. (2001) Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol., 41:237-260 for a review). Evidence implicating dysfunction of glutamatergic neurotransmission is supported by the finding that antagonists of the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptor can reproduce the full range of symptoms as well as the physiologic manifestation of schizophrenia such as hypofrontality, impaired prepulse inhibition and enhanced subcortical dopamine release. In addition, clinical studies have suggested that mGluR5 allele frequency is associated with schizophrenia among certain cohorts (Devon R S et al. (2001) Mol. Psychiatry. 6:311-4) and that an increase in mGluR5 message has been found in cortical pyramidal cells layers of schizophrenic brain (Ohnuma T et al. (1998) Brain Res Mol Brain Res. 56:207-17).
The involvement of mGluR5 in neurological and psychiatric disorders is supported by evidence showing that in vivo activation of group I mGluRs induces a potentiation of NMDA receptor function in a variety of brain regions mainly through the activation of mGluR5 receptors (Mannaioni G et al. (2001) Neurosci. 21:5925-34; Awad H et al. (2000) J Neurosci 20:7871-7879; Pisani A et al (2001) Neuroscience 106:579-87; Benquet P et al (2002) J Neurosci. 22:9679-86)
The role of glutamate in memory processes also has been firmly established during the past decade (Martin S J et al. (2000) Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 23:649-711; Baudry M and Lynch G. (2001) Neurobiol Learn Mem., 76:284-297). The use of mGluR5 null mutant mice have strongly supported a role of mGluR5 in learning and memory. These mice show a selective loss in two tasks of spatial learning and memory, and reduced CA1 LTP (Lu et al. (1997) J. Neurosci., 17:5196-5205; Schulz B et al. (2001) Neuropharmacology. 41:1-7; Jia Z et al. (2001) Physiol Behav., 73:793-802; Rodrigues et al. (2002) J Neurosci., 22:5219-5229).
The finding that mGluR5 is responsible for the potentiation of NMDA receptor mediated currents raises the possibility that agonists of this receptor could be useful as cognitive-enhancing agents, but also, as novel antipsychotic agents that act by selectively enhancing NMDA receptor function.
The activation of NMDARs could potentiate hypofunctional NMDARs in neuronal circuitry relevant to schizophrenia. Recent in vivo data strongly suggest that mGluR5 activation may be a novel and efficacious approach to treat to treat cognitive decline and both positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia (Kinney G G et al. (2002) 43:292).
mGluR5 receptor is therefore been considered as a potential drug target for treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders including treatable diseases in this connection are Anxiety Disorders, Attentional disorders, Eating Disorders, Mood Disorders, Psychotic Disorders, Cognitive Disorders, Personality Disorders and Substance-related disorders
Most of the current modulators of mGluR5 function have been developed as structural analogues of glutamate, quisqualate or phenylglycine (Schoepp D D et al. (1999) Neuropharmacology, 38:1431-1476) and it has been very challenging to develop in vivo active and selective mGluR5 modulators acting at the glutamate binding site. A new avenue for developing selective modulators is to identify molecules that act through allosteric mechanisms, modulating the receptor by binding to site different from the highly conserved orthosteric binding site.
Positive allosteric modulators of mGluRs have emerged recently as novel pharmacological entities offering this attractive alternative. This type of molecule has been discovered for mGluR1, mGluR2, mGluR4, and mGluR5 (Knoflach F et al. (2001) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 98:13402-13407; O'Brien J A et al. (2003) Mol Pharmacol. 64:731-40; Johnson K et al. (2002) Neuropharmacology 43:291; Johnson M P et al. (2003) J Med Chem. 46:3189-92; Marino M J et al. (2003) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 100(23):13668-73; for a review see Mutel V (2002) Expert Opin. Ther. Patents 12:1-8). DFB and related molecules were described as mGluR5 positive allosteric modulator but with low in vitro potency (O'Brien J A et al. (2003) Mol Pharmacol. 64:731-40). Recently benzamide modulators of mGluR5 receptors have been patented (WO 2004/087048). A new class of positive allosteric modulators has also been described; these molecules are aminopyrazole derivatives (C. W. Lindsley et al. (2004) J. Med. Chem. Epub Oct. 23, 2004 jm049400d).
None of the specifically disclosed compounds are structurally related to the compounds of the present invention.
The present invention relates to a method of treating or preventing a condition in a mammal, including a human, the treatment or prevention of which is affected or facilitated by the neuromodulatory effect of mGluR5 modulators.